12 Best Sydney Sweeney Movies & TV Shows, Ranked

There’s no one in our modern film landscape like Sydney Sweeney. In a culture where looks tend to dominate your level of success, Sweeney has devoured stereotypes — because let’s face it, she’s stunning — and ultimately has made a name for herself with the quality of her work both on and offscreen. Though she did her first TV and film stints way back in 2009, her career didn’t truly start to pick up until nearly a decade later in 2018. Since then, she has completely taken the industry by storm as a performer and, even more recently, as a dedicated producer.

Sweeney doesn’t have a ton of noteworthy credits to her name at this point in her career, but there’s no denying she’s already done some extremely memorable top-notch work, and there’s even more in the pipeline with her upcoming turn as boxer Christy Martin in an upcoming biopic. From dramas to rom-coms, horror, and nearly everything in-between, it’s exciting to look back on what she’s given us and to anticipate the kind of exciting work she’s sure to bring us in the future.

Truly one of a kind, here are Sydney Sweeney’s best movies and TV shows, ranked.

The Netflix original series “Everything Sucks!” was Sweeney’s first true leading role. The actress had quite a few small movie parts and day player TV roles under her belt at this point, but this was the first time she was part of a core ensemble. Sweeney is one of eight teens who are making a movie together in the real-life town of Boring, Oregon. The show was canceled after one season, but it wasn’t because of the critics, who gave the series generally favorable reviews. It’s a coming-of-age story in the truest sense, and it honestly deserved more than it was afforded in its singular season.

This was Sweeney proving she deserved to be more than just an extra, and she does a pretty stellar job at it. She’s funny, heartwarming, and genuine all in one deeply relatable package, and she — along with co-star Peyton Kennedy as Kate — embodies the excited precarity of exploring one’s queer identity in your adolescence. There’s a tenderness to this performance that almost feels beyond her years, certainly a sign of an actor with a bright future.

There’s a good chance you like Sydney Sweeney, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this list, but do you like weird movies? If so, “It Follows” filmmaker David Robert Mitchell’s third film, “Under the Silver Lake,” is the one for you. The movie follows a young and impressionable guy (Andrew Garfield) who becomes obsessed with discovering the truth about the disappearance of his beautiful neighbor (Riley Keough).

Sweeney doesn’t make too much of an appearance in this one, but for the little time we do see her onscreen, in a party scene that finds the film’s lead continuing to search for answers, she exudes a subtle star quality that simply radiates off her. Even with her few lines, she effortlessly takes the audience’s attention in the same dreamy way she does for Garfield’s heady character. It’s an early career performance, no question, but it absolutely sets the stage for her body of work to come.

Looking back on Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film, “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” it’s kind of nuts to think about how many young actresses would find their way to greater fame and success. The film follows an aging actor dealing with the changing realities of the industry, while the infamous Manson murders were brewing in the background. Sweeney shared the screen with the likes of veterans like Lena Dunham and Dakota Fanning but also newer faces like Victoria Pedretti, Maya Hawke, and Margaret Qualley in what would arguably become known as her breakout role. Even Oscar-winner Mikey Madison pops up.

This particular iteration of the Manson family hinges completely on the charm and presence of those who portray them. Even in her short-lived time onscreen, Sweeney adds to the mystery and the macabre feeling the group brings on. There’s one moment in the film where the group gather, and their sheer numbers are quietly menacing. While contributing to that oppressive force, Sweeney also showcases the inexperience and the fragility of who these real young women were at their core: brainwashed and in service of lies unjustly fed to them.

The rom-com heard around the world, “Anyone But You” steamrolled into the hearts of audiences on charisma and beauty alone. With Sweeney and beloved hunk Glen Powell in the lead for this modern retelling of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” it seemed certain that this movie would do pretty well at the box office. But “pretty well” ended up being a massive understatement, with the film ultimately raking in a whopping $218 million worldwide against a $25 million budget. Not too shabby.

But aside from her sweet and silly performance, which should naturally garner praise in its own right, there’s something to be said for how the industry began to see Sweeney because of her work both in front of and behind the camera with this film. Not only did she prove her comedic chops here, but she also claimed to have had a hand in the film’s so-called guerilla marketing strategy to have its leads fake a potentially burgeoning relationship in the public eye. Considering the kind of movie the team set out to make, it was exactly the kind of strategy that would give the film the headlines it wanted — and it did. For Sweeney to jump headfirst into whatever might bring the film the kind of overwhelming success it ultimately got shows not only the scrappy and smart kind of performer she is, but it’s also foreshadowing for the kind of producer would become.

If you want to see more movies like “Anyone But You,” we’ve got you covered.

Sweeney’s 2020 horror film “Nocturne” certainly wasn’t her first foray into genre work, but it definitely was her first serious attempt. She had many smaller indie genre projects under her belt once this script hit her desk, but despite middling reviews, this film truly gave Sweeney a chance to expand her horizons. This Blumhouse feature tells the story of a talented pianist, Sweeney’s Juliet, who makes a deal with the devil to steal the ultimate successes from her twin sister Vivian (Madison Iseman), also a talented — maybe even more talented — pianist herself.

In this thrill ride, Sweeney tapped into the raw humanity of ambition and desire and how letting those impulses go unchecked can serve to sabotage even those with the best of intentions. Further still, she was able to hone in on how enticing ambition can really be, and the sinister ways it might physically manifest in the self if it was able to. There’s a particularly great moment in the film where Juliet is envisioning herself being awarded for her talents, and the way her accomplished self smirks back at her is truly the stuff of nightmares. As with many of the roles she’s played in her short career thus far, this is another film where Sweeney is showing audiences what she’s capable of.

Sweeney’s stint on “The Handmaid’s Tale” came in 2018, when she was beginning to really be seen as a young actress with potential. Needless to say, she rose to the occasion with her work on this gripping adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel. She plays a pious and quiet young girl named Eden who is married off to Max Minghella’s Nick, a central figure in main character June’s story, and her raw humanity in the face of insurmountable interpersonal struggle made her an actress to watch in the mainstream.

She did seven episodes on the beloved thriller-drama, and her arc started pretty early on in the series, when the show was arguably at its strongest from both a writing and directorial perspective. Sweeney can even be seen as one of the earliest guest stars that helped shape the diverse pool of women that intersected with June and her story. Alongside memorable faces like Madeline Brewer — who has gone on to be a central figure in the show’s latter seasons — Sweeney’s human portrayal of a young and terrified woman trying to make it in a cruel world feels both elevated and achingly human. You can’t ask for more with a dystopian sci-fi series.

Sweeney did HBO’s “Sharp Objects” the same year as “Everything Sucks!” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” — talk about an acting challenge. This show has a decidedly different tone than both of the others, as “Sharp Objects” is a psychological murder mystery. So clearly, Sweeney had her hands full acting-wise in 2018.

But what makes a real impression about her seven-episode guest stint on this limited series is how much she can stand her own alongside a heavy-hitting co-star like Amy Adams. Sweeney is excellent at brandishing her character Alice with a hardened sense of self in the face of trying to survive mental illness, but she is also just so good at letting the vulnerabilities that come with that struggle show. Being that this series was adapted from “Gone Girl” writer Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name, it was bound to get some positive attention, but the miniseries ended up being a critical success, something that Sweeney was an integral contributor to.

The first season of Mike White’s hit HBO series “The White Lotus” was nothing short of a cultural moment, and Sweeney’s hilarious contributions were a huge part of the show’s meteoric rise to viral fame. The first season was all about the appropriation of Hawaiian culture and workers on their native land and has since only continued to double down on tackling some of the most topical issues and cultural biases in our world today. It’s well-written, meticulously directed, and elevated by the strengths of its ensemble casts each season, even if we’re not sure it’s still an anthology series.

Sweeney was an integral part of the cast that made the series what it was, helping to lay the groundwork for what fans now expect each season. Sweeney’s airheaded Gen-Z queen Olivia Mossbacher paved the way for Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Granno’s hilarious Lucia and Mia from season two, and even the BFF trio of white ladies from season three (played perfectly by Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, and Leslie Bibb). She influenced an entire archetype that stays present throughout each season, and it’s because of her wacky yet calculated performance that viewers can consistently expect hilarity and ridiculousness that only the archetype of a ditsy white woman can provide.

A good mystery that truly keeps its audience guessing is worth its weight in gold these days, and despite being so early in her career, Sweeney already has a great one on her resume. “The Voyeurs,” which was her second collaboration with “Immaculate” director Michael Mohan, is an exciting thrill ride based in a purely plausible series of events: A young woman moves to a new apartment with her boyfriend and they realize they can see inside the apartment directly across the street from them. From there, their world starts to come undone in a very “Rear Window” way.

Sweeney really proved her ability to carry a film as a leading player with this project, showcasing her softness and strength in equal measure. She was already in the spotlight because of the debut of “Euphoria” two years prior, but this film solidifies her as someone who could be a bonafide movie star (and if you look at her savvy career trajectory, that seems to be ringing true). It allowed her to bring the kind of work she was doing in “Euphoria” to more mature, more thought-provoking territory. Best of all, it gave the world a taste of what she could accomplish in a genre project.

Despite what you might have to say about the HBO drama nowadays, “Euphoria” was always best judged by the capabilities of its stars, including Sweeney. The actress effectively got her big break — despite having appeared in several higher profile projects prior — when she debuted as part of the main cast of this series. Some could say it was because of how much skin her character was required to show, but the real ones know that her acting prowess was simply undeniable in “Euphoria,” and it was just clear as day in nearly every scene she stole that a star was, indeed, born.

Sweeney’s Cassie is the epitome of a confused and scared teenager yearning for true connection. As an actor, Sweeney turns cliches into soul-crushing truths, reframing teenage traumas that might not mean much in the long run into the life-altering moments they felt like they were at the time. She mastered cutting to the feeling of how earth-shaking heartbreak, betrayals, and stark realizations about the future are when you’re young. Sweeney’s performance makes it easy to remember what it was like being misunderstood in your teenage years, and to take things a step further, her portrayal of a young woman trying to live up to beauty and sex standards that she shouldn’t have to meet is perhaps the most effective arc of the series next to that of Zendaya’s lead character Rue.

This religious horror film came onto the scene during a year chock full of similar films in the subgenre, but it’s hard to deny that Sweeney’s starring vehicle made a major impression. “Immaculate” packs a huge punch, especially in the movie’s most shocking scene, but knowing how immersed Sweeney was in making this story a reality definitely adds to the weight of the film’s impact. She first auditioned for writer Andrew Lobel in 2014, but after years of agonizing development hell, she was able to purchase the rights to the project and hire director Michael Mohan. The investment is real, and it shows.

Sweeney is utterly fierce in this film, fighting for her life in the literal and figurative senses every step of the way. She is absolutely the lifeblood of this project, and it’s not a stretch to say that her performance is the major success of this movie. Lobel’s story is compelling and Sweeney is dedicated to elevating not just the stakes but the film as a whole as much as possible with her instincts and choices. She really helped bring an indie masterpiece to life here and should be so proud — how could she not be with such an excellent end result?

It seems almost inconceivable that the first slot on this list wouldn’t be the film Sweeney tirelessly produced and starred in after years of collaboration with the writer and director. How is that not her best project? Honestly, it’s so close, but her impeccable portrayal of Reality Winner in her last hours as a free woman is so monumental that it simply must be celebrated in the number one slot of this list. Director Tina Satter took the FBI transcripts of Winner’s interrogation by two agents hellbent on getting her to confess to leaking sensitive information about the 2016 election and turned the real incident into an absolute tour de force. Much of that successful intensity is due to Sweeney’s performance, which is wholly in lockstep with Satter’s vision.

Satter’s film, which she adapted from her play “Is This a Room,” distills the whole situation down to the gravity of the words exchanged by the three parties who were there, and Sweeney does a magnificent job of humanizing a situation it’s easy to feel removed from. You feel her terror, you see the calculation on her face in real time as she tries to navigate a minefield of dialogue with her freedom intact. She takes the audience on the emotional roller coaster Winner found herself on, and because of her strength and dedication to unflinching truth, this is the performance of Sweeney’s career… so far, that is.